From Antagonistic Agnostic to Gospel Medical Missionary

When a colporteur family held Bible studies in his home, John Kelly tried to be just offensive enough to keep them from coming back, but not so overt as to offend his wife, who had invited them. It didn’t work. They kept coming, and before he knew it, the prophecies of Daniel had captured his interest.

As an antagonistic agnostic who believed only in what could be seen and proved, Kelly found the audacity of a Bible writer claiming to foretell the future to be either incredibly bold—or just plain stupid.

The Evidence of History

Week after week Kelly went to his encyclopedia to search out the history of nations as they came and went. Instead of finding that the prophecies were pure speculation, he found they were uncannily on the mark. The sequence of dates, countries, and rulers in the historical record matched the prophecies!

“How could this be?” he pondered. “Unless . . . the prophecies were written after the fact!”

As he searched more deeply, he learned that “higher criticisms” by scholars had made that very argument, only to be overturned by archaeologists who translated the triple language writings on the Cyrus Cylinder.

With the insights provided by that cylinder, scholars determined that the names and facts in Daniel’s prophecies were correct. This brought Kelly to a point of reckoning: Would he continue to deny the existence of God, or acknowledge the incontrovertible existence of suprahuman foreknowledge in the Bible?

The Master Design

The studies also examined the prophecies of the Messiah and their fulfillment in the life of Jesus. The unbelievable condescension of a Creator loving humanity enough to become a human being humbled John’s proud agnostic heart and turned him into a devoted servant of his loving Creator.

“The great controversy and the plan of salvation . . . it all made perfect sense,” Kelly says.

“I was a software engineer—my life consisted of designing automated computerized business systems. I knew as a systems engineer that if there was a Creator, there had to be a master design. I determined to learn what that design was, and to adhere to it as closely as humanly possible to fulfill God’s intent for my life.”

Before even being baptized, Kelly began following the diet described in Genesis 1:29 that God had designed for Adam and Eve and the seventh-day Sabbath described in Genesis 2:2, 3. He immersed himself in Bible Readings for the Home Circle and the writings of Ellen G. White.

“I knew that I knew nothing about God’s design,” Kelly says, “so I would go to the Bible and the testimony of Jesus Christ for everything before taking any action on anything like buying a car or deciding on a life calling—everything, big or small. It has served me well.”

A Call to Reform

After retiring from his IT career in 1988 to work full-time for God in medical missionary work, Kelly felt led by God into gospel medical evangelism. In 1993 God led him to a statement by White that changed his life calling regarding God’s design for sanitarium-based medical missionary ministry: “The light was first given to me why institutions should be established, that is, sanitariums were to reform the medical practices of physicians” (Medical Ministry, p. 27).

Coupled with other more detailed instructions, Kelly sensed the call to gospel medical evangelism.

Against the odds, Kelly went back to school to complete pre-med studies 27 years after dropping out of college. He eventually graduated from Loma Linda University’s dual M.D./M.P.H. program with honors. During his education he saw solid evidence that lifestyle changes could not only treat but reverse the chronic diseases killing most Americans.

Lighting the Fuse

In 2004, as a young physician at 55 years of age, Kelly received an American Medical Association Foundation Excellence in Medicine award as the founding president of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. Kelly says God is using this medical specialty to change the very practice of medicine.

“God has blessed my humble efforts beyond anything I could have imagined,” he says. “I was called to ignite the spark that lit the fuse that caused an explosion! Medicine will never be the same.”

The original version of this story was posted on the Mid-America Union Conference Outlook.